Weekly Roundup: A Week of Plan Bs

Saturday we revisited our new favorite breakfast bistro. The syrup is a little sticky, but the food is light and delicious and doesn't leave me feeling like I ought to lay down for the rest of the day.

Plus it's a pretty place; all the walls are painted in a salmon color. And it's clean. Clean ranks very high with me. While we were there, the little ones wanted their turn with the camera.

What are you doing, Dumpling? Don't take it like that...

There you go! Oh...well...um...try again....

Perfect catch, sweetie!

"Is it my turn, yet?" *whimper*

No, not yet. But I love you.

After breakfast, the day's main event: taking Dumpling to the music store downtown and introducing her to some instruments that she doesn't yet know. She's learned all her notes on the treble and base clefs, and as soon as she can say them a little faster, we'll start her on an instrument of her prayerful choice. We told her to pray about it because, at 7, she doesn't know what she'll enjoy 10 years from now--or what she might be gifted at--but the Lord does!

We've kind of pushed counted on assumed she had her sights set on the cello, but one day she said, "I don't know--what else is there?"

So, we spent a little time at Alamo Music. And that is where I remembered that I played the snare drum in a 6th grade Christmas concert once upon a time. My friend, Patti, and I were such a novelty to the band teacher that she really pushed us gave us a lot of attention.

So we promptly quit.

It's just like riding a bike....which I probably don't do well anymore if it's not bolted to the floor. But let's pretend.
Oh! And Husband too! He used to play. I think he holds the sticks weird, but he says that I'm wrong and that he did play longer than me, so I say, "touche"...but snap this picture anyway.

Hey...um...Dumpling--you're crowding my solo.

But there's more to percussion than just the drums! She's off to try the glockenspiel. If she chooses this, I'm going to have myself a hissy fit because last year in my de-cluttering zeal, I gave away a $20 garage sale set sans the stand. The music man behind the counter tells me they run about $500. And it makes me want to cry.

Pick something else! Pick something else!

Wait. What are you doing?

A trumpet! Are you kidding me, man?! Are you trying to kill me?

Oh, it's a coronet? Well, then that makes it all better, doesn't it?

(Actually, she looks kind of adorable, doesn't she?)

Now then, that's nice. A clarinet. You know, Dumpling, your Aunt M played the clarinet for about 10 minutes. I blinked and missed it, but I heard she was pretty good.

And finally, a flute...

Sunday night Dumpling fell ill and that cost us all the next couple of days. So...the week starts out as a Plan B. But as it turns out, I don't think she was contagious. I have my reasons. And while the story would make the funniest. post. ever. I will choose dignity and propriety over blog fodder.

Sorry.

When we finally got back on routine, there was the everyday learning...

Math and manipulating all manner of fractions. Skip counting and place value. Divvying up cookies and telling time.

Grammar showed us transitive and intransitive verbs and the early stages of diagramming sentences. Copy work that teaches and reinforces spelling and punctuation. And delightfully strange new words are popping up in everyday conversation: the cat gave her an imperious look and once she had to extricate him from her knitting yarns.

We finished Children of Summer and know more about dung beetles than anyone in double digits wants to know. Of course, for those among us in single digits, the stories were gleefully gross!

History has us moving through the ancients. This week we arrived at the Egyptians, the Minoans and river civilizations in general. If I was concerned that our second time around would prove less than inspirational for Fifi--I needn't have worried. She cannot. stop. telling me about Queen Hatshepsut--Hattie, for short--and what they found in her temple grave, and how grand the ancient structures, and something about mummified crocodiles that were burned to ash before one was broken open to reveal random bits of Egyptian scrap paper with heiroglyphics.

Unless, of course, she's talking about the Titanic.

Hey! There's no reading at the table!

Of course, for my "puppies," everything represents a chance to play and learn...but mostly play.

I must be reminded annually, at least, that the less I rely on the pressing time structure of my curricula, the more learning weaves its way into the fabric of our days. Those are the best days.

The a/c failed on Wednesday night, just in time for record highs on Thursday. But by the Lord's mercy, it was fixed fairly cheap on Thursday, just in time for the first dry cold front of the year to hit our town on Friday! Ha ha ha ha...ha...ahem.

Finally, on Friday night we tried to take the girls to see a horse trainer who uses his beasts of burden to illustrate biblical principles. But once we hit the road, it was like the end times...traffic backups for accidents every few hundred feet it seemed. Before long, it was clear we would have to formulate another Plan B.

And that wasn't too terribly hard because Freddy's Frozen Custard has just opened a store nearby.
There were seats to twirl atop...

And of course--there was custard. Good to the last drop.

Quote of the Week:

This week, Cuddlebug wins the honor for stopping down devotions after Husband happened upon the story of Stephen's stoning in our 365-day Bible for Kids. "Noooooo, he wasn't stoned...he was just pebbled!"

Honorable Mention:

Husband, when Fifi appealed to him that Patience, our howling, yowling, barking beagle, would surely die if we drove her up to a ranch and left her there, said, "Well, she might at first--but then she'd get over it."

Ugh. That dog. Good thing the cat really likes her.